NFL buzz: 49ers’ dysfunction, plus Seahawks news

There’s a little chaos in the front office of the San Francisco 49ers, as the Seahawks’ NFC West rivals are suddenly without general manager Scot McCloughan just five weeks before the NFL draft.

Scot McCloughan

McCloughan, well regarded for his work in rebuilding the 49ers back into a contender the past two seasons, has apparently been dismissed after somehow getting sideways with ownership for personal issues not-related to football.

He was the Seahawks director of college scouting prior to joining the Niners in 2005 and had two years remaining on his contract in San Francisco.

David White of the San Francisco Chronicle provides the latest update, saying team officials aren’t commenting on McCloughan’s sudden departure while the former GM himself has intimated there are some family issues involved.

But Michael Silver of Yahoo! Sports writes that McCloughan was blindsided by the 49ers, who reportedly cleared his office out on Thursday. Silver says the move puts the Niners in company with the Oakland Raiders in the dysfunction department.

It’ll be interesting to see how things play out, since McCloughan’s younger brother, David, is the team’s director of college scouting and another key figure in draft preparations, while Scot serves as GM and also oversees the team’s salary cap and contract negotiations.

Not only do the Niners compete with the Seahawks in the NFC West, they’ll be closely intertwined in the draft as well with San Francisco holding the 13th and 17th picks in the first round, sandwiching Seattle’s second choice at No. 14.

Don’t be surprised if McCloughan resurfaces in the NFL in Green Bay. As Adam Schefter of ESPN notes, he is long-time friends with Packers GM Ted Thompson, who has an opening in his personnel department created by the departure of John Schneider to the Seahawks.

It’s also worth noting that McCloughan worked with Mike Holmgren in Seattle and Holmgren is said to have fought hard to keep him with the Seahawks when he opted for the Niners. And, of course, Holmgren now has total authority in Cleveland …

Pitts, 30, is coming off microfracture knee surgery and says he’s 6-8 weeks from returning to football work, but he is a quality guard who had started 114 straight games for the Texans prior to hurting his knee in the second game of last season.

The 6-4, 320-pounder has extensive experience in the zone blocking scheme and played for Seattle line coach Alex Gibbs in Houston.

Pitts met with the Niners on Friday after visiting Detroit earlier in the week. The Seahawks appear too late to get in the game, however, as Pitts said on his Twitter account Friday that Houston, Detroit and San Francisco are all teams he’d be happy to play for.

Two other veterans the Seahawks had in for visits this past week were defensive end Vonnie Holiday and wide receiver/special teamer Sean Morey, according to Adam Caplan of scout.com.

Holliday had five sacks last year for Denver last year, but is 34 years old. He presumably has some relationship with GM John Schneider from Green Bay, where he played the first five years of his career from 1998-2002.

Morey, also 34, made the Pro Bowl in 2008 for his special teams work and has carved a career out of covering kicks. He spent the past three seasons in Arizona.

Linebacker Lance Laury, who built his own special teams reputation the past three seasons in Seattle, signed Friday with the New York Jets. Laury was an unrestricted free agent after the Seahawks declined to give him a $1.1 million tender offer.

His departure comes as no surprise, given Seattle signed former Tampa Bay free agent Matt McCoy to fill a similar back-up linebacker and special teams role this week.

Darryl Tapp

Speaking of outgoing Seahawks, defensive end Darryl Tapp signed a three-year, $9 million deal with the Eagles on Friday. Tapp was traded for Chris Clemons and a fourth-round draft pick on Tuesday and obviously is happy to be soaring with the Eagles now.

Tapp talks of his whirlwind offseason on his blog, noting how excited he was to initially hear that new Seahawks coach Pete Carroll had a new role for him in the defense and he was expecting big things.

Instead, he was traded a day after signing a one-year, $1.176 million tender contract with Seattle. Stunned, yes. But Tapp’s latest post is titled, “Change has come and change is good!”, so it sounds as if he’ll be OK. And I’m guessing the $9 million contract doesn’t hurt.

Tapp will receive a $3 million bonus this season, plus a $1.176 million base salary that alone equals what he would have made in Seattle.